If anyone on this site flies Spirit Air to Florida like we do, hold on to your wallets, because they are about to get a whole lot lighter due to some new baggage transportation policies. Spirit used to transport two checked bags per passenger for free, just like every other carrier. Now, they are only giving you one for free and the second one will cost an additional $10/ person (EACH WAY). Starting on 6/20/2007, they will now be charging for the FIRST bag as well, to the cost of $5/first, $10/second, $100/third per passenger, EACH WAY. Additionally, the free soda or coffee or juice service will be discontinued. You will now have to pay $1 for the beverage that was FREE since the airline's inception. Granted, the cost of these new fees is not exorbitant in and of themselves, but this is a simple matter of principle. If a family of four needs to transport two bags each to and from their destination and they each wish to have a drink on the flight each way, it is going to cost them an additional $128. Why? What additional service is the airline providing for that cost to justify it, other than pure greed? Spirit also is now offering a club called the $9 Fare Club... you can get a three month trial of the Club, to the tune of a $9 fee ($3/ month). If you want to enroll in the club, it's $30/year, ($2.50/month). Therefore it actually costs more per month to try the club than it does to enroll in it. I recently signed up for the Free Spirit Visa Card so my Spirit Air miles would never expire. They gave me a $40 discount on the flight and some extra bonus miles. I know that air line miles do not a millionaire make, so I deviated from my values and got the card in a moment of temporary insanity. They charged me the $39 annual fee THE NEXT DAY! Needless to say, the card is now in 300 pieces on the bottom of my shredder. Opinions?
Yeah, don't fly with them anymore. British Air is trying the same thing to see if it works. But like rate increases, unless everyone does it, it will go away. But one year ago meals/snacks were free on AA. Now they're $4. For a bag of M&Ms. At least soft drinks are still free. For now.
from spirit's web site... For customers who purchased tickets prior to December 15, 2006, for each ticketed passenger, Spirit Airlines will transport two (2) bags as checked luggage free of charge. For customers who purchased tickets between December 15, 2006 and March 6, 2007, Spirit Airlines will transport one (1) piece of luggage at no charge per fare-paying customer. For customers who purchased tickets on or after March 6, 2007 for travel on or after June 20, 2007, charges will apply to each item transported as checked luggage. Spirit Airlines can only guarantee the transportation of one (1) item as checked luggage per fare paying customer. Additional bags will be accepted only when reserved in advance on www.spiritair.com. If not reserved, Spirit cannot guarantee that there will be space for additional bags and will not be held responsible for any additional items brought to the airport by the customer. Please note that space is extremely limited on certain flights into select markets and may rarely be available in the markets listed below.**
Ahhhhh I think they're trying to make more $$$ doing air freight. Why would baggage all of a sudden be "space unavailable". Everyone else charges for weight overages - why this?
funny you should mention that, roger... they are charging for oversize/overweight baggage also... Effective June 20, 2007 the following rules will apply to all customers: NOTE: Option to purchase checked bags online through spiritair.com (web option) will be available in early June. For 1st Bag – $5 USD Web/ $10 USD Airport Excess Weight Fees: 51 to 70 lbs. (23 - 32 kg) $25 71 to 99 lbs. (32 - 45 kg) $100 Excess Size Fees: 62" + (158cm +) $100 80" + (203cm) $150 For 2nd Bag – $5 USD Web/ $10 USD Airport Excess Weight Fees: 51 to 70 lbs. (23 - 32 kg) $25 71 to 99 lbs. (32 - 45 kg) $100 Excess Size Fees: 62" + (158cm +) $100 80" + (203cm) $150 For 3rd Bag - $100 USD Web or Airport, plus any additional fees below: Excess Weight Fees: 51 to 70 lbs. (23 - 32 kg) $125 71 to 99 lbs. (32 - 45 kg) $150 Excess Size Fees: 62" + (158cm +) $100 80" + (203cm) $150 Bags weighing more than 99 lbs. (45kg) will not be accepted as checked baggage. Surfboards, Scuba Tanks and Bikes - Spirit will accept surfboards, scuba tanks and bikes as luggage for an additional charge of $50.
Hmm.. AA doesn't allow oversized bags, and they only charge $25 for bags betweem 51 and 70 lbs - I guess you can't bring anything heavier. I say we all just switch to Virgin America.
I'm a frequent flier on a bunch of airlines, including Spirit. These charges don't bother me a whole lot - I would much rather pay these extras "a la carte" as opposed to having them build them in to the cost of everyone's ticket. When my family travels, extra bags aren't a problem for us since my 2 sons are younger, and don't need a "full suitcase" for their clothes ... so we usually have extra room. Even if we did, the $10 extra isn't that big of a deal. Since Spirit routinely will fly from Detroit to Orlando for $109, $99 or even $89 dollars, an extra $10 fee would still keep them around $150 less per ticket than Northworst. In any event, I'd get used to this concept - I think most air carriers will be going this route soon.
The basic thing is.. as I understand it the air carriers have been fighting a price war that's leading to bankruptcy for them all. We're getting cheap tickets as a result, but it seems to be a basic fact that they're losing money in the process. Sooner or later they have to find a way to get more money. It's not greed, it's an attempt to keep their business afloat. My guess is Spirit is trying to sneak in additional fees instead of raising their basic prices, because people have demonstrated a willingness to accept extra fees instead of open price increases. It's sort of the opposite of what the petroleum companies are doing.. ya'know, raising their prices in unison so their profits skyrocket.. but they're not price fixing, oh no, they're just.. setting profit records under market pressures that cause any other type of business to lose money if not fail entirely. I wouldn't be happy to see the extra fees either.. and especially that note about having to reserve space for more baggage or else you might not even be able to take all your bags. Yikes. But.. I agree that that makes it sound like they're trying to use every extra bit of space they have to carry air freight. And in a way I appreciate the attempt to try to use the full capacity of their aircraft, in the end that could allow them to keep their basic prices lower.
less luggage means faster unloading, less dwell time at the gate, this allows more flights to a paticular airport, quite often a carrier can't expand service, not because of more equipment needs or more costs, the demand is there but there is not a gate window available at either end plus luggage by requiring booking ahead of time would allow the cariers to eliminate the baggage handlers jobs, outsourcing to an as needed, maybe paid per piecework style luggage service you think your bags suffer damage and go astray now? because buried in the ticket fine print will now be a clause stating that all baggage problems now fall on the outside contractor/airline not responsible, eventually airline turns complete baggage over to outsource, requiring you to book through them, airline no longer has anything to do with getting anything other than your body to the destination disliking corporations more and more gary
